SME complains about G-Cloud procurement

A complaint by an SME that "impact level accreditation" used by G-Cloud procurement is disadvantageous to small businesses is among the issues about government purchasing raised on the Cabinet Office's supplier feedback service. The complaint is contained in the Cabinet Office's latest report on the service, which was set up by the Office of Government Commerce and extended under Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude with an invitation to small businesses to become 'mystery shoppers'. According to the report, the G-Cloud team gave a detailed response to a number of points raised by the SME. The team explained that the tender had been broken into lots to enable small businesses to participate and that 74% of suppliers on the G-Cloud framework are SMEs. "They then explained the approach to data security and impact levels," the report says. "The 'mystery shopper' was grateful for the response, but maintains his view that the use of impact level accreditation is disadvantageous to SMEs." Another SME challenged the Ministry of Defence (MoD) after failing to secure a contract. The company had been responsible for providing biometric solutions as sub-contractor, but when the arrangement was ended by the prime-contractor, the SME was unsuccessful in bidding for a new contract. It asked for a "comprehensive de-brief", which the report says was arranged with the MoD. The speed of the procurement process did not enable consortia of SMEs to form to bid for a Civil Service Learning and Development contract, according to another small business. A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said:"'Mystery shopper' acts as a sounding board for what is happening out there on the ground, not just in central government but in the wider public sector. And that is one of the reasons that it is so valuable. "We actively use and share the feedback – for example, we will shortly issue a procurement policy note across government on the lessons learned from mystery shopper, including issues like the use of pre- qualification questionnaires and fairer financial appraisal of suppliers."